Greg Nicotero Feels It was “Different” And “Exciting” For Lennie James To Leave ‘The Walking Dead

Most of the time when ‘The Walking Dead‘ loses a cast member, it is due to death but executive producer Greg Nicotero isn’t sure how to feel about Lennie James leaving the show. For starters, he’s clearly still going to be alive and kicking when he arrives in the upcoming season of ‘Fear the Walking Dead‘ so we know that he survives the current “All Out War” story arc.

Nicotero reveals:

“When Lennie [James] moved over to the other show, we had a really great conversation and the last day of shooting in Georgia, I hugged him, and we got a little emotional, just about everything that we’ve been through over the last eight years. I feel like Lennie is part responsible for the success of The Walking Dead.”

How saying goodbye to James differed from other cast members:

“It certainly was different. It’s an exciting time. But also, we have to process the characters that we lose and then question, okay, who’s filling that spot? Who’s filling this spot? Our cast, since the beginning, has always been very organic in terms of how it morphs into different things. We had season 1, and then we had the farm, and then we had the prison, and then we had Terminus, and then we had Alexandria. The dynamics of the show shift and change and I really believe that by the time this season ends, we’re going to see another one of those great opportunities where the show continues to show its strength.”

Of course, with James being alive there is always still an opportunity that he could return in a season or two. Morgan will be gone, but clearly not forgotten.

Nicotero referenced a specific scene when it comes to Morgan as well:

“The scene where he’s sitting in his house, trying to shoot his wife and just completely broke down was one of the moments in the pilot that made me realize that we had something different and that we had something special.”

I suspect that we’ll see a new take on this scene in Morgan’s last moments for the series. It will either be a similar setup, and Rick ends up pushing for Negan to live and face justice which is what Morgan would have previously pushed for. I believe this change of character where Morgan would be willing to take Negan’s life is what drives him away from ‘The Walking Dead’ and towards his uncertain future in ‘Fear the Walking Dead.’

Do you think that this change of scenery for Morgan is going to be good for his character and ‘Fear the Walking Dead’? Share your thoughts below!

Stuart Conover

Stuart Conover is a father, husband, blogger, published author, geek, entrepreneur, editor of Horror Tree, horror fanatic, science fiction junkie, lives in a world of comics, and a casual gamer (all of this when his wife lets him of course.) He fell in love with science fiction and horror at the same time while watching the movie Alien at probably far too young of an age while still being extremely impressionable and has been happily obsessed with both since! Around the same time, he had also developed an unhealthy addiction to comic books that continues to this day!Want to talk about anything geeky? Reach out on Twitter - @StuartConover

I find it very hard to demonstrate any enthusiasm for TWD … it has become a relentlessly boring & monotonous show about unrelenting hatred, violence and death. Little redeems this show from its constantly aggresive & bloody trajectory. Every recent article spruiking the ‘exciting’ action of the back 8 episodes and how we’re going to see a ‘walker’ that we’ve never seen before … just leaves me feeling flat and disinterested. Maybe the show just reminds of the seemingly never ending violence that surrounds us in our real lives.